Rumored executive order would change landscape of UC subscription partnerships; The Daily Californian, January 30, 2020

Alexandra Casey, The Daily Californian; Rumored executive order would change landscape of UC subscription partnerships

"Prominent Nobel laureate and chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs Rich Roberts has no online access to a paper he co-authored because his institution lacks a subscription to academic journal Nature Microbiology.

Roberts is one of 21 American Nobel laureates who submitted an open letter to President Donald Trump on Monday urging him to approve a rumored plan to make federally funded research free of cost and immediately accessible after publication. UC Berkeley’s Randy Schekman, who founded eLife — an open access scientific journal — led the Nobel laureates in their letter...

“This would effectively nationalize the valuable American intellectual property that we produce and force us to give it away to the rest of the world for free,” according to the letter from the publishers. “This risks reducing exports and negating many of the intellectual property protections the Administration has negotiated with our trading partners.”

The letter added that the cost shift could place an “additional burden” on taxpayers and undermine both the marketplace and American innovation."

Canada needs an innovative intellectual property strategy; Globe and Mail, May 19, 2017

James Hinton and Peter Cowan, Globe and Mail; 

Canada needs an innovative intellectual property strategy

"The recent federal budget signalled a dramatic shift in Canada’s approach to innovation. By announcing a national intellectual property (IP) strategy, the government finally addressed the calls of innovation experts who understand the critical role of IP in a 21st-century economy...

Canadian innovators have only a basic understanding about IP

Canadian entrepreneurs understand IP strategy as a defensive mechanism to protect their products. In reality, IP is the most critical tool for revenue growth and global expansion in a 21st-century economy. Cross-discipline awareness and education is needed so that our innovators know how to generate IP through technology standards, regulatory design, ecosystem-licensing strategies, litigation, trade agreements and so on. Companies should also have access to pro bono and low-cost services at all publicly funded institutions."